How to Protect Your Online Reputation [INFOGRAPHIC]

Are you aware of the online reputation that you or your business have? Do you keep tabs on all the web properties that people could find? Weather you’re selling something, looking for a job or even looking for a date, you can be certain that you or your business will be ‘Googled’ – online reputation is critical.

It’s a phrase we hear all the time, but how often do you actually Google yourself? Do it now! Make sure you don’t find any surprises that others who may be searching for you might see, manage your online reputation on a weekly basis.

Did you know….

80% of people have changed a purchase decision due to a bad review

90% of recruiters will Google your name

70% of men and 63% of women Google their potential partners before a date.

Scary stuff, huh!?

The infographic below reveals more stats about online reputation and ways to combat negative review.

Enjoy! Please leave a comment below if you’ve been targeted by internet trolls, the bearers of bad reviews!

Thank you for your highly informative and thought-provoking article. Though I myself have not been the victim of Internet “trolling,” I am aware of the negative effects that result from this. As pointed out in the red section about perceived anonymity (with the character wearing a paper bag over his head), the laws on the books haven’t exactly tipped the balance in favor of honesty vs. random gripe attacks. A major issue is what’s known as sock-puppet attacks, in which a person will post negative (or otherwise biased) commentary or reviews under multiple account names, thus creating the illusion that multiple people are issuing the same response when it is only one. People can actually be paid to do this; also, many times these “review mills” are located in places where English is not the primary language, and not even headquartered as a company per se but a loosely organized group of five or ten “support staff” issued pennies on the dollar just to post biased content about a person, company or product on various Internet sites.

That being said, I don’t particularly like the idea that the only way to drown out negative content is to create positive content yourself. I’m not big on dating, so I don’t really care about what potential “mates” think of me or not. And yet it is important to realize that dates, employers, college recruiters, etc., are all people, first and foremost, so what a potential significant other might find about you on Google is probably the same as what a potential employer might find, a college recruiter, etc. But I don’t have ANY social networking profiles, none whatsoever, and never have, in which case the only thing people might find when searching my real name is whatever’s in the phone book. Any commentary that I make is always posted under a pseudonym. I do search myself on occasion, just to see what’s out there, and for now, nothing, nothing beyond public records (and I actually have an unlisted phone number, so even the White Pages isn’t a good place to look). Two questions, then, on this issue: First, what does it say about me if nothing comes up in a web search, and second, if for whatever reason something “bad” does come up with my name, what can I do that DOESN’T involve getting sucked into the “social network” and accruing further risk of rubbing people the wrong way?